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Learn Japanese to bully Localizers

Thread Description
Learning Japanese guide and resources

Ene

varishangout.com
Regular
Translator Extraordinaire
[Short guide for learning Japanese. Mostly focuses on reading]
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Since you don't live in Japan you will need to make studying a daily habit.
I recommend studying on the same time every day for "at least" 30min.


1: Hiragana and Katakana: Use children level stuff
I used these videos with a pen and paper to write the characters.
(and I would also watch baby alphabet songs before going to sleep)
The Videos say learn Hira/Kana in an hour, but I only did 5 letters a day.

1.5: Duolingo [It isn't the best, but its a fun way to learn surface level Japanese]
Don't use Duolingo for too long

2: Grammar: A beginner level book is a good start (People seem to recommend Genki)
Tae Kim Grammar Guide You can also start with this
今日 IMABI Another grammar guide (if things get hard, you can use this to start over and review what you've learned)

2.5: Kanji: You can study Kanji gradually as you study grammar, or you could take some time to specifically focus on Kanji. Do it at your own pace.
Anki: (Spaced repetition Flashcard program)
Kanji Deck: Heisigs Remembering the Kanji (RTK) 6th Edition (Kanji with stories to help you remember)
Tip: Focus on memorizing the meaning while just reading the On'yomi and Kun'yomi readings of the Kanji, learn the pronunciations when you study vocab.

3: Vocabulary:
Core 2k_6k Optimized Japanese Vocabulary (Vocabulary Deck) <-Switch to this once you accumulate enough kanji

4: Manga: (Or other media)
People seem to recommend "Yotsuba" as a first manga.

My recommendation:
> Something with Furigana (small Hiragana next to the kanji)
> Something simple with day to day conversation (slice of life maybe)

> Something you like or read in english before

.
From here just continue to study and read/play Japanese stuff
Note: Don't rush into trying to read Manga. Once you're confident in your reading, or feel like you've at least reached elementary school level Japanese, than you can start reading Manga (or other media)

Helpful Stuff:
Reajer A site for reading translated JP stories with a different difficulty levels (For some reason sometimes it only opens when click it a bunch of times)
Jisho [JP -> ENG] Dictionary
Rikaichamp - Rikaikun [Firefox - Chrome extensions] for reading kanji by hovering over them (Rikaichamp seems to have been changed into "10ten Japanese Reader")
DeepL (Translator)
ejje.Weblio a site for looking up translated example sentences
Weblio A JP dictionary
dic.pixiv A dictionary for terms you won't find in a normal dictionary (like some of the stuff on pixiv)
Animelon A site for watching anime with JP and Eng subs (you can hover over words for their meaning, but it doesn't always work)
Itazuraneko A site with a LOT of resources for learning Japanese [Backup:
https://djtguide.github.io/index.html]
 
Last edited:

Dynasty11

varishangout.com
May as well. Most of the manga I've been buying are mostly in Japanese from Japan. These were the ones that are unlicensed by American manga and light novel companies.
 
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Cayhr

varishangout.com
Artist
Regular
Awesome resource, Ene. And then after I learn Japanese in a few years I'll go learn Korean. Japanese media is most of the stuff I "consume" nowdays, and there's a tiny few Korean ones I could end up learning the language for, as well.

The mainstream deserves nothing but apathy at this point... so yeah, take the proactive route, learn something, expand your brain, and leave the west in the dust.

Done with Hiragana, and now on Katakana.
 

island

varishangout.com
realkana.com is how I learned both kanas, its the most barebones and simple way to learn.

I used the book Japanese Kanji for Beginners to learn kanji, it has about 400 or so of the most common kanji characters you will come across, but I've only memorized the most basic ones from general osmosis of browsing sites with Japanese text.

PDF below
 

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  • Japanese Kanji for Beginners The method that’s helped thousands in the U.S. and Japan learn Ja...pdf
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Misato

varishangout.com
Regular
Hello.
I'll correct some useful Japanese learned tools information here.
Would you like to check that?


I'll advice for you as a Japanese.

① Don't have to write about kanji.

This is my opinion, I guess you don't have to learn many kanji writing.
That's why, kanji is very very a lot!
It's so hard so you should learn Japanese romaji typing!
If you get that skill,you can use Japanese,easily.

② Don't lost the motivation.

The language learning don't have the shortcut,unfortunately we have to learn a long time for you want to learn language.
So we don't have to lost the motivation.
You should find a good Japanese content for you.
For example, anime and J-pop, vtuber (especially, clip video) etc.

③ Don't need the perfect Japanese.

Well, the grammar is important but you shouldn't learn perfect Japanese grammar.
The important are what do you want to say to your intention to somebody.

When you put some easy Japanese,that ok! It's enough!

sushi + 食べる(たべる) < taberu > + 欲しい< Hoshi i >

食べる = eat

〜欲しい < want >

JP reaction : "Oh, this guy is want to eat a sushi,ogey. "

Mostly Japanese are don't carious about your Japanese mistakes.
Anyway, if you want to say something in Japanese for example, you should type Japanese youtube comment or streaming.
We understand,you can't not well Japanese.
When somebody insult to your Japanese. Don't worry about that!
That Japanese user is just shit! and mostly Japanese are mad about that rude Japanese.
We are happy, you are learn about Japanese.

" When you want to speak Japanese.
You can contact me anytime. ( But I can't soon reply < please forgive me that > )"

I mean, you can send Japanese shit post to my post lol
If I had the time,I can correct and advices.

But basically you should watch my video.
You can easily responce from Japanese I think this Japanese video is very useful in the world lol



Bye.
 
Last edited:

quickbeam1213

varishangout.com
Hello.
I'll correct some useful Japanese learned tools information here.
Would you like to check that?


I'll advice for you as a Japanese.

① Don't have to write about kanji.

This is my opinion, I guess you don't have to learn many kanji writing.
That's why, kanji is very very a lot!
It's so hard so you should learn Japanese romaji typing!
If you get that skill,you can use Japanese,easily.

② Don't lost the motivation.

The language learning don't have the shortcut,unfortunately we have to learn a long time for you want to learn language.
So we don't have to lost the motivation.
You should find a good Japanese content for you.
For example, anime and J-pop, vtuber (especially, clip video) etc.

③ Don't need the perfect Japanese.

Well, the grammar is important but you shouldn't purse perfect Japanese grammar.
The important are what do you want to say to your intention to somebody.

When you put some easy Japanese,that ok! It's enough!

sushi + 食べる(たべる) < taberu > + 欲しい< Hoshi i >

食べる = eat

〜欲しい < want >

JP reaction : "Oh, this guy is want to eat a sushi,ogey. "

Mostly Japanese are don't carious about your Japanese mistakes.
Anyway, if you want to say something in Japanese for example, you should type Japanese youtube comment or streaming.
We understand,you can't not well Japanese.
When somebody insult to your Japanese. Don't worry about that!
That Japanese user is just shit! and mostly Japanese are mad about that rude Japanese.
We are happy, you are learn about Japanese.

" When you want to speak Japanese.
You can contact me anytime. ( But I can't soon reply < please forgive me that > )"


Bye.
Thank you very much for your advice! I am trying to learn Japanese and having a lot of fun!
 

VidMasterEon

varishangout.com
Regular
Here is a good book i used in Uni
It is "Japanese: the spoken language" by Elanor Harz Jorden and Mari Noda
There are 3 of them and despite being old are still good
I have one major complaint and that is they do not use hepburn romanization
'Shi' is romanized as 'si' ji is zi chi is ti and so on
Makes it a pain in the ass to read

I also have an alternate to anki
I use Wanikani it is a paid online service that covers words too
It is great if you need help with discipline or feel it is too easy to cheat with anki
 
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